UP FRONT: WORTH NOTING; You Might Call Them Salt Water Daffies

By Robert Strauss

Published: March 27, 2005

There must be something in the water. How else do you explain why politicians in two shore communities -- Beach Haven and Atlantic City -- have bolted from their party?

Take Mayor Deborah Whitcraft of Beach Haven, though she has always been kind of fickle that way.

Ms. Whitcraft was first elected in 1998 as a Republican, but in 2003 -- saying she was disenchanted with the party because it didn't give women in elective office many opportunities for advancement -- became a Democrat.

But last week Ms. Whitcraft announced that she had filed papers with the Ocean County Board of Elections to drop party affiliation altogether, saying that she was tired of the pressure to appoint more Democrats to boards and other positions.

So far there has been no word on whether she will return to the Republicans or stay independent.

Down the Parkway a bit, Robert Levy -- Atlantic City's longtime chief of the beach patrol and emergency services -- has been tapped by the Atlantic County Democratic Committee to run against the incumbent mayor, Lorenzo Langford, in the June primary.

Mr. Langford is also a Democrat, though he has run afoul of the county committee, which had originally supported his longtime rival, Council President Craig Calloway.

Things got tricky, however, when Mr. Calloway made a surprise announcement that he was dropping out of the primary for health reasons. That's when the committee turned to Mr. Levy -- who has never run for office and was, until only three months ago, a lifelong Republican. Robert Strauss